1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnetic recording medium such as magnetic tape for recording data thereon. More particularly, the present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium that permits rapid location and identification of data recorded on the medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cassette tapes are commonly used for recording music, dictation, and other data. A typical cassette tape has a length of magnetic tape wound between a pair of rotatable spools supported in a plastic case. Unfortunately, only the tape that is exposed between the spools can be read from or written to. To access the data on the wound portions of the tape, the tape must first be forwarded or reversed until the desired portion of the tape is exposed between the spools. Several forwarding and/or reversing attempts are often required to locate the portions of the tape having the desired data stored thereon. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that locating information on a tape in this manner is extremely inconvenient and time-consuming.
Computer disks, which are typically formed from a rotatable platter having a plurality of concentric tracks formed thereon each having a plurality of adjacent sectors for storing data, do not suffer from the above limitations because a read/write head can scan over the tracks to locate the desired data. However, computer disks are much more expensive to manufacture than conventional cassette tapes and therefore are not practical for many applications. Moreover, recording to a computer disk is more difficult and requires more complicated equipment than when recording to a conventional cassette tape.